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Hellam Twp. woman buys antique saddle worth thousands for $7

Stacey Myers bought an antique saddle at an auction for $7 and found that it could be worth more than $3,000.

By MIKE ARGENTO Daily Record/Sunday News

Updated:
02/05/2013 07:12:20 AM EST

Stacey Myers of Hellam Township found a saddle at auction for $7 that she says is a U.S. Calvary officers saddle from 1830-50. (and was probably made in Philadelphia. YORK DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS - PAUL KUEHNEL)

Stitching that looks like eagle wings can be seen on the saddle found by Stacey Myers of Hellam Township. (and was probably made in Philadelphia. YORK DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS - PAUL KUEHNEL)

It was the brass eagle head that caught Stacey Myers' eye.

The eagle head was attached to an old saddle, rolled up and blanketed in dust under a table at Toomey's Auction in Hellam Township. Upon closer inspection, she saw that the saddle itself had intricate stitching on its seat, in the pattern of the eagle's wings.

"It was just interesting," she said. "We had no idea what we were looking at the time."

Stacey and her husband, Craig, had some time to research it - they saw the saddle at the Sunday night preview for Monday's auction - so they went to their Hellam Township home and Googled "brass eagle saddle horn."

It turned out to be something. That style of saddle was made between 1820 and 1850 and was used by military officers during the Mexican-American and Civil wars.

Myers is interested in Civil War antiques - she had been buying and selling antiques for 10 years and has a shop, Thundermug Antiques, in Columbia - so she figured she'd bid on it.

The saddle was part of the bulk items being auctioned - perhaps 20 items were being sold at the same time - and Myers opened the bidding at $2. There was a counter, and she bid again. And it was hers.

She paid $7.

"Everybody was looking at me like I was crazy," she said.

It was just an old saddle.

And she wasn't crazy.

She checked several auction sites for the value of the saddle and found that it was worth more than $3,000. That it still had its brass eagle head horn boosted its value; typically, the brass eagle heads are among items excavated from Civil War battle sites. One auction, Cowan's Auctions in Cincinnati, recently sold one of the saddles for $3,500.

Told that she paid $7 for the saddle, Ken McPheeters, proprietor of McPheeters Antique Militaria in Bulverde, Texas, and co-author of "The American Military Saddle, 1776-1945," was silent for a moment and then chuckled.

"Seven dollars?" he said. "She did well."

The style of saddle with the eagle-wing stitching, he said, is the most rare of that type of saddle. Not many of those saddles survived because they were made with lighter leather, almost like glove leather, and wore out easily, McPheeters said.

"It's not common," he said. "They are scarce."

Myers has had such luck with other items in the past. She once bought an old pool cue at an auction for $11. It turned out to be a vintage Willie Hoppe cue, valued at $700. Another time, someone gave her an old German Army helmet that turned out to be pre-World War II and worth $2,500.

And now, the saddle.

For now, she plans to clean the saddle and perhaps restore it without destroying its originality, or value.

"It's pretty dusty," she said. "It looks like someone had it hanging in a barn."

She doesn't know where the saddle came from, just that it was part of an estate sale.

She's going to put it in her shop. She hasn't decided on a price yet. She's in no hurry to sell it, hoping that it finds the right buyer.